Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Danish Braid v.1

On my quest to satiate my longing to travel with cooking instead, I decided to make a Danish pastry. Canadian danishes never appealed to me, with their fake-looking cherry and lemon fillings – I’d always go for almond rings or croissants instead. Now another digression (just indulge me here): so after second year, I went back to Europe (partially) by myself and traveled to a few different countries. I started out eating ok (again, I wasn’t a vegan back then) but by the time I got to Vienna, Copenhagen and Paris, I got into the habit of eating a healthy homemade breakfast and dinner at my hostel, and during the day I would eat a pastry and tea instead of lunch. Not very healthy, I know, but damn, I’d give anything to replicate those sweet-cheesy and nutty fillings. Those Danish danishes were nothing like the Canadian ones. I have dreams of perfecting vegan pastry-making one day.

Warm the water and almond milk in a saucepan just until tepid (watch carefully!). Transfer to a bowl, add the yeast, and let it sit for a few minutes to foam while you prepare the rest of the dough. Combine the flour, salt and cardamom in a large bowl. Cut the cold margarine (it must be cold) into ½ inch cubes and add to the flour mixture, mixing a bit but not too much. Add the orange zest and vanilla extract and seeds to the yeast mixture. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour the yeast mixture in, mixing gently but not too much. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for 8 hours (that’s right, it’s got to rise in the fridge or the margarine will melt and you won’t get the necessary flaky pastry goodness).

Lightly coat a clean surface with flour, and bring out the dough, shaping it into a rough square. Warning: if the margarine appears to soften at any point in the rolling-our process, put the dough in the freezer for a bit to cool down. Roll out into a 16-inch square, and fold into thirds (like you’re folding a letter). Now roll out into a 10x24 inch rectangle, and fold into thirds again. Roll into a 20 inch square, then fold in thirds again. Finally, roll into 10 x 24 inch rectangle and fold into thirds one last time. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.

Take the dough out of the fridge, and cut in half. If you don’t want to make two braids at once, wrap the second half in plastic and keep in the freezer until you feel like making another one (it’ll keep for a couple of weeks, at least). When you’re ready, transfer to the fridge and allow to thaw for a few hours or overnight, then proceed from here.

From here on, I’m assuming you’re using one half of the dough, like I did. So if you’re making both at once, assume I’m talking about each half (maybe a no-brainer, but I just thought I’d warn you).

Cover a cookie sheet with some parchment. Roll the dough out into a rectangle about ¼ inch thick. Transfer the dough to the parchment and make slightly angled parallel cuts down both of the long sides of the rectangle, about 1/3 of the way in (good images to show how this is done can be found here. Spoon your filling of choice (I’ll describe what I used below) down the middle of the rectangle, and fold the flaps (alternating sides) over it, tucking in the ends. Spray cooking oil onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place it over the braid. Place in a warm-ish place and let rise for two hours or so, preheating the oven to 400 degrees toward the end of the rising time.

Brush the almond milk over the top of the braid, pop it into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Then rotate the pan 180 degrees, lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees, and bake for 15-20 minutes more, until golden brown.

I sliced up 1 ½ cups of strawberries and layed them out on the dough, then I spooned out half of the cream cheese mixture on top.

After I took the braid out of the oven, I sprinkled on some powdered sugar, and it was so pretty, I didn’t want to ruin it by cutting it up. But I had to eventually, and I have to say that it tastes most delicious warm from the even, or reheated in there. Mmmm…

I still have half the dough in the freezer, so probably next week I’ll make another braid with a different filling, maybe something with almonds?